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A reporter's shock at the Haditha allegation (Was embedded with Marines - different perspective)
CNN ^ | Tuesday, May 30, 2006; Posted: 1:57 p.m | Arwa Damon

Posted on 05/30/2006 12:49:13 PM PDT by gondramB

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- It actually took me a while to put all the pieces together -- that I know these guys, the U.S. Marines at the heart of the alleged massacre of Iraqi civilians in Haditha.

I don't know why it didn't register with me until now. It was only after scrolling through the tapes that we shot in Haditha last fall, and I found footage of some of the officers that had been relieved of their command, that it hit me.

I know the Marines that were operating in western al Anbar, from Husayba all the way to Haditha. I went on countless operations in 2005 up and down the Euphrates River Valley. I was pinned on rooftops with them in Ubeydi for hours taking incoming fire, and I've seen them not fire a shot back because they did not have positive identification on a target.

I saw their horror when they thought that they finally had identified their target, fired a tank round that went through a wall and into a house filled with civilians. They then rushed to help the wounded -- remarkably no one was killed.

I was with them in Husayba as they went house to house in an area where insurgents would booby-trap doors, or lie in wait behind closed doors with an AK-47....

How they didn't fire at shadows, not knowing what was waiting in each house, I don't know. But they didn't.

And I was with them in Haditha, a month before the alleged killings last November of some 24 Iraqi civilians.

I'm told that investigators now strongly suspect a rampage by a small number of Marines who snapped after one of their own was killed by a roadside bomb.

Haditha was full of IEDs

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News
KEYWORDS: arwadamon; damon; haditha; husayba; ied; ieds; iraq; oif; ubeydi; wot
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To: em2vn
You're reaching.

No, I'm not. If you want to believe CNN is suddenly pro-war, go right ahead.

41 posted on 05/30/2006 1:39:31 PM PDT by Darkwolf377 (RINO, Bushbot, Jorge, illegal lover, anti-American, blah blah blah)
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To: aflaak

ping


42 posted on 05/30/2006 1:45:16 PM PDT by r-q-tek86 (** Tagline Removed By Admin Moderator **)
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To: Barney Gumble

The terrorists use civilians as human shields, they fire from their windows and doors then run out the back to avoid return fire. All of this is documented along with the use of mosques, hospitals and schools for their ambush and cache activities.

Our troops are the best, but sometimes shit happens. That's not an excuse, it's an explanation.


43 posted on 05/30/2006 1:49:46 PM PDT by tupac (Democrats are God-less, America-hating bastards. Each and every one of them.)
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To: TheCrusader

I thought that Bush wouldn't repeat the same PC mistakes as in Vietnam, but I think he lost all of his chutzpah after the invasion or at the latest, after Abu Grahib "scandal". Rumsfeld has been declawed long ago.

The left throws mud at the wall and sees what sticks. Bush & Co are just trying to cower to avoid getting hit.


44 posted on 05/30/2006 1:56:19 PM PDT by Barney Gumble (A liberal is someone too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel - Robert Frost)
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To: siunevada

The implication was clearly that the story of the massacre does not fit with her experience.


45 posted on 05/30/2006 1:58:41 PM PDT by MiHeat
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To: gondramB


"Al Gore is reportedly almost 100 percent
serial that Man Bear Pig is trapped in this rubble."

46 posted on 05/30/2006 2:03:55 PM PDT by HHKrepublican_2
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To: pissant
She's got a head as big as Tony Snow's, but not too bad. Bless her for writing that piece.

LOL - she could be Tony's long-lost twin sister!

47 posted on 05/30/2006 2:06:03 PM PDT by Inspectorette
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To: Inspectorette

A double-yolker. ;o)


48 posted on 05/30/2006 2:06:51 PM PDT by pissant
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To: gondramB

The commanders appear not to have been involved, but I think they were removed to compensate for the fact that the commanders (like the affirmative action female "general") were not removed during the investigation of the Abu Ghraib incident.

I thought her report was good and she gave a good description of the conditions. The ending was ambiguous, but the implication I got was that the local "insurgents" were simply claiming this "atrocity" and pulling a stunt.


49 posted on 05/30/2006 2:10:53 PM PDT by livius
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To: prophetic

Ditto: "Every day that passes its more & more clearer that the Democrats, Liberals and esp the MSM are allies of these same terrorists that we claim to be fighting OVER THERE!!"


50 posted on 05/30/2006 2:19:50 PM PDT by victim soul
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To: HHKrepublican_2; pissant; capt. norm

I have been really bothered by comments about her appearance. A long jaw (such as Ann Coulter's) is often simply an ethnic characteristic, and until fairly recently was considered very attractive. Most movie stars of the 30s and 40s have long or "strong" jaws. The fashion for the weak receding chin came in relatively recently, although there was a vogue for it briefly during the 19th century as well.

Fashions in female beauty come and go. Sometimes having a strong jaw, straight nose, high forehead, etc., is considered very feminine; sometimes a receding chin, wide snub nose and low forehead are considered more attractive. But please, folks, everybody should remember that nobody has any control over whether or not they are born with society's favorite features.

Once upon a time (18th century), an attractive man was one who had a "nice leg." That was when men wore tights or close fitting pants, and men with "chicken legs" or stumpy shapeless legs were widely pitied. So fashions do change, but in no case can you chose to be born with society's current fashion.


51 posted on 05/30/2006 2:22:45 PM PDT by livius
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To: gondramB

ping


52 posted on 05/30/2006 2:25:47 PM PDT by ocr1
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To: livius
Point taken.

I was trying to be funny about liberals.

There is certainly nothing wrong with the lady in question.

53 posted on 05/30/2006 2:26:20 PM PDT by capt. norm (W.C. Fields: "Hollywood is the gold cap on a tooth that should have been pulled out years ago.")
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To: Barney Gumble
Bush has not repeated the mistake of VN, in that he lets the military commanders make the military decisions.

Rumsfeld declawed?! Obviously, we do not watch the same pressers. Rumsfeld has publicly told the media to suck on a rock and dared them to complain about it while he laughs at them.

Abu Ghraib was a foul up by foul ups. The administration stood by the military as a whole and rightly sought trials for the perps. Discipline is essential to any professional military and bad actors take everyone else down with them.

I am not happy with a lot of what is going down these days, but I would vote for W again. I see the GOP Senate cowering, no one else.

YMMV
54 posted on 05/30/2006 2:27:53 PM PDT by reformedliberal
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To: livius

Hey, I just said she had a big head. Some big heads are attractive and some aren't. LOL


55 posted on 05/30/2006 2:28:40 PM PDT by pissant
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To: SE Mom
Here's one for the record book...a reporter..from CNN no less.- who has (hold on to your seats) favorable things to say about this unit of Marines.

I'm wondering if maybe CNN has info that will prove Murtha big time wrong = and want to get a toe in the door of '"we weren't rushing to judgment"

56 posted on 05/30/2006 2:29:22 PM PDT by maine-iac7 (Lincoln: "...but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.")
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To: capt. norm

Thanks!

That's true about liberals. Some of their men have a little more body hair than their women but otherwise are pretty indistinguishable. (If anybody has a picture of the late Andrea Dworkin to post, do so now - or maybe not, since it's near dinner time for a lot of us...)


57 posted on 05/30/2006 2:30:24 PM PDT by livius
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To: capt. norm

LOL!!!!!!


58 posted on 05/30/2006 2:35:45 PM PDT by Suzy Quzy ("When Cabals Go Kaboom"....upcoming book on Mary McCarthy's Coup-Plotters.)
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To: Darkwolf377

I agree...nowhere does she say the Marines are innocent. CNN is still what it is. The most important part of this non story is this:

"After being hit by an IED, his men were searching the area and found a massive weapons cache in a mosque. Although it wasn't his company that we were embedded with, the Marines had taken me to the mosque so we could get footage of the cache."

more weapons - lots more in a "mosque" - using "religious" sites to store weapons...not reported enough IMO.


59 posted on 05/30/2006 2:36:15 PM PDT by eleni121 ('Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!' (Julian the Apostate))
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To: livius
If anybody has a picture of the late Andrea Dworkin to post

OH NO! I was cleaning my mouse and it went off by accident:

"Ooops, there she is..."

60 posted on 05/30/2006 2:37:40 PM PDT by capt. norm (W.C. Fields: "Hollywood is the gold cap on a tooth that should have been pulled out years ago.")
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